AI, Loyalty & Monetization: Membrana Media at WAN-IFRA LATAM 2025

Panama City, March 2025 — The Membrana Media team is back from WAN-IFRA LATAM 2025, one of Latin America’s top gatherings for media professionals and publishers. Set in the vibrant heart of Panama City, this year’s event brought together industry leaders to explore a pressing question: How can journalism remain sustainable in a rapidly changing world?

Over two days, our delegation — CEO Mike Kudriavsky, LATAM Managing Director Lívia Ematné de Matos, and Hispanic Publishers Director Álvaro Al. Cuesta — connected with fellow experts, discussed the latest monetization strategies, and examined the key themes reshaping the future of publishing: regulatory changes, new content formats, and the growing impact of AI.

“This wasn’t just another conference.Here, the major players in Latin American #media came together to talk about how to turn news into a business,” said Mike Kudriavsky, CEO of Membrana Media. “The conversations? All about money, digital transformation, survival, and growth—in other words, everything that keeps publishers up at night”.

5 Things Publishers Are Talking About

1. AI agents are on the rise

In some places—like Mexico and Brazil—they’re already being actively tested. In others, people are still trying to figure out what they even are. But the direction is clear:  newsrooms will soon be communicating with readers through AI.

‍2. Search is changing

Google no longer just drives traffic to websites—it becomes the answer itself. The user asks a question, Google responds, and the publisher’s link ends up somewhere down below—if it appears at all. The result: fewer clicks, especially for informational and educational queries. So SEO is no longer about “getting to the top”—it’s about surviving in the results. If your business is built on traffic, it’s time to start looking for new growth points.

‍3. Loyalty is key

As algorithms increasingly replace original sources, what matters is no longer just search traffic—but stable direct visits, subscriptions, and owned communication channels. Publishers who rethink their strategy and invest in direct relationships with their audience will come out stronger. The rest risk watching their metrics drop—while the reasons remain out of their control.

‍4. Short. Visual. Emotional

Content today is all about reaction. It has to be quick, sharp, and emotionally engaging—no random shots, no fluff. Mobilefirst is no longer a choice—it’s the reality. Latin America basically lives on smartphones. And the real world is finding it harder and harder to surprise people (sad but true).

5. The Takeaway
Publishing is getting tougher: more rules, more tech, more competition. But one thing holds steady: content quality still drives loyalty. It’s the foundation for trust, retention, and long-term success.